Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF)

OMB #0970 – 0356

Expiration Date: 6/30/2021

Instrument 2: SIRF Follow-Up Phone Meeting with Program Staff Protocol

Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF)

Semi-Structured Follow-Up Phone Protocol with Program Staff

Thank you for taking time to meet with the SIRF study team. My name is _______________, and I’m a researcher with MDRC/MEF/Insight Policy Research. As a reminder, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has contracted with MDRC and its partners, MEF Associates and Insight Policy Research, to conduct SIRF. It will utilize rapid learning methods, or iterative cycles of learning to identify implementation roadblocks, design and test solutions, interpret findings, and make adaptations to practice and measurement.

The purpose of this meeting and similar meetings with other fatherhood programs is for the SIRF team to learn more about your program operations and priorities to help us understand how they align with SIRF study design priorities. This could include, but is not limited to, learning more about challenges recruiting fathers, enrolling them in services, engaging them in initial services, or retaining them as participants in ongoing services. We are also interested in learning about strategies your program has employed or plans to employ to solve these challenges.

Please know that meeting with us is completely voluntary, and you can choose not to answer any question you don’t want to answer, or to leave the discussion entirely without any penalty. The discussion will last approximately 1 hour. If you complete only part of our conversation, we may use the information we collected from you before that point to better understand the program.  

 

Anything that you share in the interview will be kept private. I’ll be taking some notes in order to keep track of what we discussed here today. They’ll be stored securely. They will not be shared with anyone outside of the SIRF team.

 

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # for this information collection is 0970-0356 and the expiration date is 6/30/2021.

Do you have any questions before we get started? 

  

About the Staff

1. What is your role at [insert program name]?

2. Have you held other roles at [insert program name]? If so, what were your previous positions?

3. What are your main responsibilities in your current role?

4. How long have you been in this position?

About Program Participants

1. What is your experience engaging with program participants?

2. What are the main barriers that clients face? (e.g. housing, transportation, substance abuse, etc.)

3. Are there common characteristics of participants that benefit most from the program? If so, what are they?

4. Are there common characteristics of participants who do not benefit from the program? If so, what are they?

Practices to Identify and Meet Fathers’ Needs

1. Can you describe the practices you plan to use to assess fathers’ needs during programming next year?

1. What will the process be for your initial assessment?

2. What ongoing assessment activities will you use throughout programming?

2. How do you plan to connect fathers to resources they need?

3. Have you tried other practices to identify and meet fathers’ needs in the past?

1. [If yes] What has worked?

2. [If yes] What hasn’t worked?

Peer Support and Networks

5. Can you describe how you plan to use peer support or networks during programming next year?

1. What structures do you plan to have in place to foster peer support among program participants?

6. Do you plan to integrate former participants in programming?

2. [If yes] What role will they have?

7. Have you tried other ways to foster peer support and networks in the past?

3. [If yes] What has worked?

4. [If yes] What hasn’t worked?

Staff Capacity

1. Can you describe the practices you plan to use in the next programming year to increase staff capacity?

1. What internal staff support strategies will you use?

2. In what ways will you build workshop facilitation capacity to improve service delivery?

2. What practices would be beneficial for staff at your program to be trained on?

3. Have you tried other ways to develop staff capacity in the past?

1. [If yes] What has worked?

2. [If yes] What hasn’t worked?

Recruitment

1. Can you describe the process you plan to use in the next programming year to recruit participants? Will the program use targeted recruitment practices?

2. Are there dedicated staff to recruit participants?

3. What is your role in recruitment?

4. How do you develop the messaging you use for recruitment?

5. How would you characterize your program culture or brand that you want to convey during recruitment?

6. How do participants usually respond to recruitment practices?

7. What are reasons participants may not respond to recruitment efforts?

8. Do you plan for your recruitment methods to remain consistent throughout the next programming year?

1. [If no] Can you describe how the recruitment methods may change?

2. [If yes] What factors might hinder your ability to keep recruitment methods consistent?

9. Can you describe the biggest recruitment challenges your program faces?

10. Have you tried other recruitment practices to improve recruitment in the past?

1. [If yes] What has worked?

2. [If yes] What hasn’t worked?

Service Delivery

1. Can you describe the services offered to fathers? How are services provided?

2. What formats do you plan to use to deliver services in the next programming year?

3. How do you plan to schedule services in the next programming year?

1. How has the way you plan to approach the scheduling or sequencing of services been informed by the local context or fathers’ availability?

4. Do you plan to implement a retention and follow up plan in the next programming year?

1. [If yes] How will that plan be structured?

5. What is your role in service delivery?

6. How do participants respond to services?

7. What are reasons participants may not respond to service delivery practices?

8. What strategies do you use to foster a sense of belonging for fathers?

9. Do you plan for your methods and structure of service delivery to remain consistent throughout the next programming year?

1. [If no] Can you describe how the methods or structure of service delivery may change?

2. [If yes] What factors might hinder your ability to keep service delivery methods and structure consistent?

10. Can you describe the biggest service delivery implementation challenges your program faces?

11. Have you tried other ways to deliver services in the past?

1. [If yes] What has worked?

2. [If yes] What hasn’t worked?

Engagement and Retention

1. How does [insert program name] engage participants? Can you describe the process and practices?

2. What other approaches does [insert program name] use to retain participants?

3. What is your role in engaging or retaining participants?

4. How do participants usually respond to engagement or retention strategies?

5. What are reasons participants may not respond to engagement or retention efforts?

6. Do you plan for your approaches for engagement and retention to remain consistent throughout the next programming year?

1. [If no] Can you describe how the approaches for engagement and retention may change?

2. [If yes] What factors might hinder your ability to keep the approaches for engagement and retention consistent?

7. Can you describe the biggest challenges your program faces to engage or retain fathers in services?

8. How has [insert program name] changed its engagement or retention practices?

1. What has worked?

2. What hasn’t worked?

Overall Challenges and Innovative Ideas

1. What other implementation or process challenges do you think we should learn about?

2. What challenges has [insert program name] faced related to the COVID-19 pandemic? How has [insert program name] responded to these challenges?  

3. What other ways to you think [insert program name] could improve?

Capacity for Participating in Diagnosis and Learning Cycles

1. How does your program use data to manage the program?

2. How are the data stored?

3. What methods does [insert program name] use to monitor service delivery?

4. What methods does [insert program name] use to monitor program participation?

5. What methods does [insert program name] use to monitor retention?

6. What methods does [insert program name] use to monitor recruitment?

7. How does [insert program name] monitor changes in their program?

8. What specific program changes or data does [insert program name] monitor?

Office Setup

1. Can you describe the space in which you conduct programming?

1. If possible, could you take us on Zoom tour of the space?

NOTE: The Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This collection of information is voluntary and will be used to gather preliminary information about the fatherhood field and explore with fatherhood programs the research questions that are of interest and the design options that are feasible. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970 – 0356 and the expiration date is 6/30/2021. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Charles Michalopoulos; Charles.Michalopoulos@mdrc.org, and Dina Israel; Dina.Israel@mdrc.org; Attn: OMB-PRA (0970-0356).